Pre-E3 2009: Grand Slam Tennis: Career and Online Modes

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Deeper, smarter and all-around more intuitive than you might anticipate.

By Matt Casamassina

Third-party powerhouse Electronic Arts brought the latest and greatest build of EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis for Wii to its EA3 event in Marina Del Ray, California on Thursday and we were, of course, on hand to play it. Last time we saw the game, the developer took us through the fundamentals of playing its brand of tennis both with and without Wii MotionPlus support, the former of which proved incredibly accurate and addictive. (For the record, the game's intuitive and fun either way.) At this latest exhibition, EA brought back MotionPlus, but also chose to unveil some of the new modes and features complementing the tight match experience in Grand Slam Tennis. These inclusions range from the new party offering, which we can detail next week, to the robust career mode and deep online experience.

Grand Slam Career Mode The meat and potatoes of the experience, the Grand Slam Career challenges you to create a tennis champion from scratch and then take them through the ranks. Your ultimate goal is to win your way through the four Grand Slams. In each, you'll participate in a series of exhibition matches, skill challenge games, legend challenges and bonus matches and along the way you will build up your own athlete's five-star rating and even add a few special attributes to their arsenal. You nab these character attributes by defeating the legends in their bouts, so for example, if you best Pete Sampras you'll earn his respected power serve and can equip it when necessary. EA has reserved three empty icons located in the upper screen for these specials and using them correctly will play into the strategy because certain attributes will be extremely beneficial against certain stars.

The character creator is designed to be accessible for any player type -- casual or core. EA reps said they wanted to deliver a create mode that didn't take hours to use. They figure that some Wii players would rather get to the gaming experience. After choosing your first and last name, you set your orientation (left or right-handed), gender, and your plan of attack, whether a defensive baseliner, a serve-and-volley player like John McEnroe), an all-court athlete (like Roger Federer) and so forth. Next, you select your nationality and then start customizing the physical appearance of your character.

The game's Wii MotionPlus controls feel spot on.

You start with several preset character designs -- an attempt to eliminate some of the initial fiddling. You simply point and click to select from nearly a dozen different facial shapes, skin tones, hair styles, hair colors, eye colors, facial hair, shirts, shorts, hats, sweat bands, shoes, rackets and other apparel. All of the clothing in the game is officially branded, so you will find Adidas, EA, Lacoste, Nike, Rebok and more.

Once you've created your future superstar, you're jumped into the game map -- a hub of the tournaments that await you. While the experience is ultimately fairly linear, you can choose to tackle certain challenges in the order you desire. For instance, if you want a special move that a legend possesses, you're free to face him in a set and if you win, you'll gain it. It's preferential, though. You could just as easily go for a different legend and an altogether different special if you so desired.

Online Mode One of EA's main goals with Grand Slam Tennis was to nurture an online experience that could be connected to quickly and seamlessly. The game builds upon and streamlines the tech utilized for the online portion of Madden 09 for even speedier access times. According to the developer, it'll take less than 30 seconds and you'll "be online and playing." To that end, the title once more utilizes EA Nation and altogether bypasses Nintendo's stunted and unnecessary friend codes system.

Grand Slam Tennis boasts a very pleasing visual style.

The other priority for the studio was online gameplay with no noticeable latency -- a goal it achieved. The developer is proud that gamers will not be able to detect any latency while playing against each other online, and this is even true during doubles matches (two players per console).

Gamers will be able to go online as their created players -- they all have the same skill levels -- or as one of the 23 licensed athletes. Any venue can be played online, too. The title also supports competitiveness by way of online leaderboard tracking by way of the Battle of the Nations, where the results from every match you play are tracked and contribute to your nation's overall score and ranking.

Look out for more on the title's party games next week. Until then, enjoy the new screens and movies we've posted.